Non-partisan
Not for profit
Social Enterprise
Stop Lying In Politics Ltd. is a UK, non-partisan, not for profit organisation which is dedicated to protecting the public from lying in politics. We exist to set a precedent against lying in politics in the English common law.
Protecting freedom of speech
Meaning that a prosecution against lying in politics would not infringe upon the vital human right of freedom of expression.
Politicians need to be able to state their aspirations, predictions, and promises in order to do their jobs. But, these actions are very different from outright lying, which are knowingly false statements of fact intended to deceive.
Enabling Public trust in democratic systems
‘Democracy can only survive when ordinary men and women have faith in the integrity of those whose responsibility is the preservation of integrity of Parliament in all its workings’
-R v Jackson (1988)
Public trust is abused when a jury decides that elected representatives have lied to the public in abuse of their duties. Examples may include serious and not trivial, repeated dishonest statements about:
- Spending of the public purse
- Public health issues such as COVID-19
- The reasons for starting a war
- Matters of great public interest
Politicians keep lying to us about really important things and we haven't worked out how to protect the public from them yet. The public's trust in our democratic systems cannot be maintained until we have established that such actions are illegal.
